Daily Bible Notes: May, 10th
The following daily bible notes for every day of the year, are taken from six public domain sources:
- "Morning and Evening" by Charles H.Spurgeon
- "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by John H.Jowett
- "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
- "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by Charles H.Spurgeon
- "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan
- An Evening Meditation from "Searchlights from the Word" by G. Campbell Morgan
1. "Morning and Evening" by C.H.Spurgeon
Morning
But now is Christ risen from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:20
The whole system of Christianity rests upon the fact that "Christ is risen from the dead;" for, "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain: ye are yet in your sins." The divinity of Christ finds its surest proof in His resurrection, since He was "Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." It would not be unreasonable to doubt His Deity if He had not risen. Moreover, Christ’s sovereignty depends upon His resurrection, "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living." Again, our justification , that choice blessing of the covenant, is linked with Christ’s triumphant victory over death and the grave; for "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Nay, more, our very regeneration is connected with His resurrection, for we are "Begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And most certainly our ultimate resurrection rests here, for, "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
If Christ be not risen, then shall we not rise; but if He be risen then they who are asleep in Christ have not perished, but in their flesh shall surely behold their God. Thus, the silver thread of resurrection runs through all the believer’s blessings, from his regeneration onwards to his eternal glory, and binds them together. How important then will this glorious fact be in his estimation, and how will he rejoice that beyond a doubt it is established, that "now is Christ risen from the dead." "The promise is fulfill’d, Redemption’s work is done, Justice with mercy’s reconciled, For God has raised His Son."
Evening
The only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Believer, YOU can bear your testimony that Christ is the only begotten of the Father , as well as the first begotten from the dead. You can say, "He is divine to me, if He be human to all the world beside. He has done that for me which none but a God could do. He has subdued my stubborn will, melted a heart of adamant, opened gates of brass, and snapped bars of iron.
He hath turned for me my mourning into laughter, and my desolation into joy; He hath led my captivity captive, and made my heart rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Let others think as they will of Him, to me He must be the only begotten of the Father: blessed be His name. And He is full of grace . Ah! had He not been I should never have been saved. He drew me when I struggled to escape from His grace; and when at last I came all trembling like a condemned culprit to His mercy-seat He said, ‘Thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee: be of good cheer.’ And He is full of truth . True have His promises been, not one has failed. I bear witness that never servant had such a master as I have; never brother such a kinsman as He has been to me; never spouse such a husband as Christ has been to my soul; never sinner a better Saviour; never mourner a better comforter than Christ hath been to my spirit. I want none beside Him. In life He is my life, and in death He shall be the death of death; in poverty Christ is my riches; in sickness He makes my bed; in darkness He is my star, and in brightness He is my sun; He is the manna of the camp in the wilderness, and He shall be the new corn of the host when they come to Canaan. Jesus is to me all grace and no wrath, all truth and no falsehood: and of truth and grace He is full , infinitely full. My soul, this night, bless with all thy might ‘the only Begotten.’"
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Exodus 3:1-14
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God's mountain, to Horeb.
2 The LORD's angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burnt with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 Moses said, "I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."
4 When the LORD saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."
5 He said, "Don't come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."
6 Moreover he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8 I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
9 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
11 Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12 He said, "Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
13 Moses said to God, "Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what should I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM," and he said, "You shall tell the children of Israel this: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
GOD'S USE OF MEN
"I have surely seen the affliction of My people ... come now, therefore, I will send thee."
Does that seem a weak ending to a powerful beginning? The Lord God looks upon terrible affliction and He sends a weak man to deal with it. Could He not have sent fire from heaven? Could He not have rent the heavens and sent His ministers of calamity and disasters? Why choose a man when the arch-angel Gabriel stands ready at obedience?
This is the way of the Lord. He uses human means to divine ends. He works through man to the emancipation of men. He pours His strength into a worm, and it becomes "an instrument with teeth." He stiffens a frail reed and it becomes as an iron pillar.
And this mighty God will use thee and me. On every side there are Egypts where affliction abounds, there are homes where ignorance breeds, there are workshops where tyranny reigns, there are lands where oppression is rampant. "Come now, therefore, I will send thee." Thus saith the Lord, and He who gives the command will also give the equipment.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
May 10th.
Father of all, I think of the scattered and torn sections of the race. May they be bound together into a loving family
kinship! Destroy the things that make for divisions. Give peace in our time.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Hebrews 13:6
Because God will never leave nor forsake us, we may well be content with such things as we have. Since the Lord is ours, we cannot be left without a friend, a treasure, and a dwelling-place. This assurance may make us feel quite independent of men. Under such high patronage we do not feel tempted to cringe before our fellow-men, and ask of them permission to call our lives our own; but what we say we boldly say, and defy contradiction.
He who fears God has nothing else to fear. We should stand in such awe of the living Lord that all the threats that can be used by the proudest persecutor should have no more effect upon us than the whistling of the wind. Man in these days cannot do so much against us as he could when the apostle wrote the verse at the head of this page. Racks and stakes are out of fashion. Giant Pope cannot burn the pilgrims now. If the followers of false teachers try cruel mockery and scorn, we do not wonder at it, for the men of this world cannot love the heavenly seed. What then? We must bear the world's scorn. It breaks no bones. God helping us, let us be bold, and when the world rages let it rage, but let us not fear it.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
My holy name shall ye no more profane with your gifts.
Ezekiel 20:39, R.V.
Gifts presented to God by hands that are impure, are themselves impure, for God only receives the gift according as He has received the giver. The offering that we bring to God is the true expression of the value at which we appraise the altar.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears.
Luke 4:21
What a wonderful day that was! The Lord was back in Nazareth, in His boy-hood's home, among the people who knew Him best, so far as the incidental things of His earthly life were concerned. Luke says that He went into the synagogue "as His custom was." What visions that suggests of His regular presence in that gathering-place through the years! How often He had been there mingling with the worshippers, and yet separated from them by the mystery of His being, and by the consciousness of His mission! And now He chose to make that synagogue the place where He claimed the fulfilment in Himself and His work of the wonderful foretelling of the prophet so long before. Reference to the passage in Isaiah (61:1, 2) will show that the place where He ceased reading is revealing. In our versions only a comma separates what He read from the words, "and the day of vengeance of our God." For that He was not then anointed. In the time appointed He will carry that out also, with all that follows of restoration. How long the interval represented by that comma, only God knows. The times and seasons are within His authority. So far the interval has lasted nearly 2,000 years. This is still the day of His Gospel, His work that of delivering of captives. It is still the acceptable year of the Lord.
Note: To the best of our knowledge we are of the understanding that the above material, all published before 1926 and freely available elsewhere on the internet in various formats, is in the public domain.